Grassroots Cafe

I’ve always said that if I was to ever go veggie I’d basically live on Indian and Chinese food. I find that whenever I enjoy either of these delicious cuisines I can happily eat vegetable dishes and not really miss meat that much, because they are both so flavourful.

This was proven recently when I met up with my homie and No1 utter boss lady Lynsay Loves for a long overdue catch up. Now Miss Lynsay is a veggie so whenever we meet up I always try to think of interesting places to go with her. And after grabbing a coffee at the newly opened Grassroots recently I knew this was somewhere that she would enjoy, because the menu is all veggie.

You Glasgow natives may remember the original Grassroots which closed about 5 years ago in the same location – it stocked a whole host of deliciously healthy treats. Well, Grassroots 2.0 is very much in this vein. There are large shelves stocked with everything from fruit teas, to vegetable crisps, to protein bars and pasta….. It feels very wholesome and nurturing for the soul. So this large deli come cafe is definitely a very welcome addition to my hood.

Located on Woodlands Road, Grassroots is like a breath of fresh air to the Charing Cross end of Woodlands. The vibe is relaxed and casual, with oodles of West End hip in this large spacious cafe. If I am being honest when I first passed by when it opened I thought from the outside it looked a bit too spacious – my initial thought was that it was an art gallery? But actually once you’re inside it opens up into the shop, and there are more tables and a serving counter at the back which fills the space nicely. As you would expect from a West End location it has exposed brick, distressed wooden floor, and industrial features by the bucket load. I like it a lot and felt completely at ease hanging out there for a few hours.

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The staff could not have been lovelier… They were extremely welcoming and friendly, happily offering comments and advice when my ordering proved indecisive (a normal occurrence ….I just hate to order wrong)

The menu as I said is 100% vegetarian, with modifications available for vegans. It’s a lunch cafe-style menu with a small breakfast section, and a section of sandwiches, pizzas and some Indian dishes. I think this is just a menu to get them up and running, I would defintiley like to see them get a little bit more adventurous in their sandwhich options and pizza toppings.

Being that you already know if I was veggie I’d eat Indian virtually every day there was no way I wasn’t ordering the made in-house curry of the day, which when we visited was aloo gobi. Now the curry of the day comes with either rice or chapati, but as a natural born rule breaker I asked for both. I am a wild one me!

When it arrived the portion was extremely generous for a lunch time dish. The Aloo Gobi was overflowing with large chunky tender pieces of cauliflower and potato, which were bathed in a hearty thick lightly spiced sauce. The dish smelt wonderfully aromatic, in fact the fragrant spices from the curry wafted round my heart like a hairy worm…..so I have no idea if that is a saying used nation wide or just in Dundee in the 90s, but if you are in any doubt what it means, it means that it smelt DE-vine!

The rice was….well…. it was rice…which is to say that it was totally fine in a ricey kinda way. I have zero comment or complaint about said rice in fact. The chapati were again nice, it was warmed and a mighty fine vessel in which to eat the mega tasty curry.

I wouldn’t say it competes with the curry houses of Glasgow – your Mister Singh’s, Mother Indians, Shish Mahals, etc….but it isn’t trying to. They are a cafe producing cafe style lunch dishes, which for a mere £5.95 I have to tell you I was so absolutely impressed by.

For pudding I decided that I was going to have to try my first raw vegan cheesecake type cake. There was a multitude of flavours offer at Grassroots, but as soon as I heard the words Snickers I was sold! Now I am not going to lie to you…is it as good as a cheesecake? No of course it isn’t but it is pretty dang tasty in its own right as a vegan dessert, and I think perfectly lovely and enjoyable. It was creamy, and had a lush peanut butter taste and with a hint of caramel sweetness. I would absolutely happily order this cake again.

Price wise I was mega happy with the bill, my share came to £13.60 for a substantial 2 course lunch with coffee. I couldn’t fault the price in any way and thought the freshly made in-house curry was excellent value for money.

All in all, I was so massively impressed with the food and cafe atmosphere generally. Plus, it just goes to prove my point that if I was to ever go veggie I would live on Indian dishes, and would be eating in Grassroots a whole lot. This may have been my first visit to my new neighbourhood cafe, but I doubt very much it will be my last lunch date here.